The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a recording medium for recommending users products which are created by applying images owned by users to product materials.
In connection with systems allowing users to order photo-related products, such as normal prints and photo books, from users' terminal devices via networks, there is a well-known technique to show a product other than a product a user has ordered, when an image of a list of products in a shopping cart and subsequent images are displayed, before an image indicative of the completion of order procedure appears, thereby recommending another product to the user.
In the above technique, however, another product is recommended after the user has completed his/her operation for shopping, and with that timing, the user is unlikely to be motivated to buy the recommended product. Besides, in the case where a composite image is ordered such as a photo book, it is easy to recommend a composite image created with images which are not ones owned by a user; however, this does not motivate the user to order a recommended composite image because it is hard for the user to picture a composite image created with the user's images.
Prior art references related to the present invention include JP 2007-80164 A, JP 2007-323523 A and JP 5587398 B.
JP 2007-80164 A describes an order receiving apparatus that counts the number of images having been recorded on a recording medium for the purpose of ordering prints, determines a printing service to recommend to a user depending on the number of images, and displays, on a display, a recommending screen provided to recommend a determined printing service to the user.
JP 2007-323523 A describes a campaign notifying system that compares ordered product materials specified by a user and the order amounts thereof with campaign information including information on target product materials of a campaign, requirements for receiving benefits, and contents of those benefits, which are set in advance by a vendor, and that when any of the ordered product materials is a target product material of the campaign, notifies the user of benefit application information about the requirements for receiving benefits and information on the benefit contents in relation to the target product material of the campaign.
JP 5587398 B describes a system for creating a medium having images laid out thereon, the system storing therein an operation history related to the operation for laying out images in a layout frame of a first medium, determining at least one of images associated with the operation history as a recommended image, determining a second medium to recommend as a layout target on which the recommended image is to be laid out, and presenting the recommended image and the second medium to a user.